I, 40 - Wizarding world of sports hits UNCW

Sunday

Feb 12, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By the end of the semester, quaffles could be flying and broomsticks wagging

By Mike Voorheis

By the end of the semester, quaffles could be flying, broomsticks wagging and the snitch being snatched on campus at UNCW.A group of UNCW students are trying to get quidditch off the ground. Quidditch is the magical sport Harry Potter played in the book series by JK Rowling. It combines dodgeball, rugby, tag and broomstick-flying. Fewer than 10 percent of college students have the ability to fly on broomsticks, so quidditch had to be adapted for muggles. Xander Manshel of Middlebury College accepted that challenge in 2005, keeping the broomsticks but lowering the scoring rings to heights that even muggles can reach from the ground. He also transformed the snitch from a magically elusive sphere into a tennis ball in a long yellow sock that hangs from the waistband of the snitch-runner's shorts.April Ann Mittelstaedt is president of the Muggle Quidditch club at UNCW. More nerd than athlete, she helped form the club and became president primarily by being the one most willing to fill out the necessary paperwork.Before the club could be officially recognized, Mittelstaedt needed to find a faculty advisor. She turned to education professor Janna Siegel Robertson. Robertson said she wasn't all that surprised to be asked to sponsor the quidditch club. "I'm kind of a nerd," she said. "I like Harry Potter and all the fantasy things." The first few meetings at UNCW have drawn enough interest for Mittelstaedt to move forward with plans to put together some scrimmage games on campus and then move up to challenge other schools. She figures she'll need 15 players for a proper practice. Each team needs seven players (three chasers, two beaters, one keeper and one seeker), and then there's the matter of finding a snitch runner. The game doesn't end until one team's seeker has snatched the snitch.Players from at least 529 teams across the United States have learned to run with broomsticks between their legs. Teams from Chapel Hill, Duke and Appalachian State are among the college teams UNCW club members hope to compete against someday. The game is played in dozens of countries, from South Africa to China."UNCW [is] a bit slow to get on this bandwagon, actually," Mittelstaedt said.Robertson likes to think that her image at UNCW will be shaped more by her work with the National Dropout Prevention Center than by whether or not this fledgling team ever reaches the Quidditch World Cup. Still, she loves the idea of unity that the game could bring to a group of people."It combines a lot of groups that wouldn't normally hang out together," Robertson said, pointing out that some athletes are drawn to the game, which, even within the official rules, contains plenty of contact. But some players are just Harry Potter fans looking for something different to do. "There's no one who wouldn't fit into a Muggle Quidditch group."